A. Hope

     Prepare a feature of at least three minutes on the dreams and aspirations of children in grade school. Obtain permission to interview in school, or seek out youngsters after class. Talk to them without their parents or other adults listening in, and try to conduct your interviews one-on-one, not in a group of youngsters. Discuss their plans for school, jobs, marriage, family. Let them take the interview where they will.

B. Parents

     Prepare a companion feature to A. Hope by interviewing parents of grade-school children on the same subjects. Do they believe their children will have the opportunities children require to develop their dreams and aspirations? If not, what are the obstacles?

C. Overlooked

     Is there some aspect of local history that should be recognized but has been overlooked? In Malden, W.Va., for example, a cabin and nearby church associated with Booker T. Washington were rebuilt with the help of students from St. Cloud University in St. Cloud, Minn.
     Washington, son of a slave, became a renowned educator and the founder of Tuskegee Institute. He moved to Malden after Emancipation. Washington worked in the mines by day and taught himself to read in the African Zion Baptist Church at night, the church students rebuilt.
     Is there some site, building or area that needs similar attention? Do a broadcast feature on the situation.

D. Ceremonial

<a onClick="window.open('/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi?it=jpg::::/sites/dl/free/0073511935/234798/W9_1.jpg','popWin', 'width=NaN,height=NaN,resizable,scrollbars');" href="#"><img valign="absmiddle" height="16" width="16" border="0" src="/olcweb/styles/shared/linkicons/image.gif"> (22.0K)</a> Betty Tichich, Houston Chronicle

Many groups celebrate important stages in a person's life, from birth to death. Christians have baptismal celebrations, and Jewish boys are circumcised in a ceremony shortly after birth known as the bris. Confirmation is an important occasion in the lives of Catholic boys and girls.      The passage to adulthood for Mexican girls, which is celebrated with lavish parties in many Mexican-American communities, is known as the quinceañera. Navajo, Apache and other Native American tribes also celebrate the beginning of adult life.      Among Jews, the bar and bat mitzvah mark the beginning of religious duty and responsibility.      Sweet 16 parties are common, and in some cities there are lavish coming-out parties for young women described as debutantes.      Later in life, couples who have been married for 50 years sometimes ask a priest or minister to conduct another church wedding ceremony.      Do a feature on one of these celebrations that has occurred in your community.

E. Breakdown

     The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued these infant mortality figures by race and ethnicity of mothers five years ago:

Japanese	3.5
Cuban	3.6
Chinese	4.0
Mexican	5.6
White	6.0
Filipino	6.2
Puerto Rican	7.8
American Indian	9.3
Hawaiian	10.0
Black	13.8

     Bring the figures up to date and prepare a broadcast documentary about these figures by discussing them with experts in the field of maternal and child health.